“Damn it, Jarvis, what did you do?” I whispered.
“Er,” he started to say but ended up laughing so I punched him in the arm. “Okay, I forgot that she was a total lesbian. Dude, I’ve been out of town for a while and she could have started switch hitting or switched teams all together.”
Tanis laughed so I smacked him in the chest. “Sorry, Duckie,” he said, then coughed, trying to clear his throat.
Meadow glared at me. “Either you will accept my challenge, or I will challenge the alpha.”
Her warning had no merit.
“You know you can’t do that,” I said. “One, you’re not an elder. Two, you aren’t of this pack. And three, my mom would rip your throat out before you finished phasing.”
“I’ll kill you,” she snarled.
And before I could stop her, Cain smashed into Meadow, sending both of them sliding across the dance floor. Cain’s long black and pink hair made her look like a punk shag carpet, but her long, white fangs were nothing to laugh at—Cain had over two dozen blood trophies in only four decades of life.
“Cain, relax,” I said.
Cain snarled at Meadow, trying to antagonize her.
“This was what I was afraid of,” I whispered to Tanis and he nodded his understanding. “I accept your challenge, Meadow,” I finally conceded to keep the peace.
“You can’t do that,” Tanis snarled, stepping in front of me.
“Afraid I can’t take care of myself?” I countered, cocking an eyebrow. “Get off of her, Cain.”
The pink and black wolf snapped at Meadow before strolling to my side. Even as a wolf, her walk was overly sultry; hips swaying, tail slowly sweeping from left to right and back again in an innocent yet strangely seductive manner, large bright blue eyes which contrasted against her black and pink fur.
“I challenge you-” Meadow started but I cut her off.
“This is not your land. You are in our home, so you will play by our rules. The one challenged picks the event, and there is no way in hell I am going to ruin my outfit. The black jeep is yours, correct?” I asked.
She glared at me but nodded.
“Is that rifle in the back window just for show, so everyone thinks you’re that redneck backwoods country girl you envision yourself to be?”
“Unlike you, I know what I am,” Meadow snarled.
“I know exactly what I am,” I said before smirking. “I’m a broke ass reservation girl with a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollar BMW.”
Tanis laughed, as did Jarvis.
It wasn’t often that I brag...in fact, I had never bragged about anything in my life, so that was unsettling but felt really good.
“I’m sure you don’t even want to know how much my damn underwear cost, but that didn’t answer my question, you damn Gretchen Wilson wannabe, white trash, trailer park princess that ain’t even a half-blood. Can you shoot or what?”
Now everyone in the pack was watching and roaring with laughter; the white people didn’t get it.
Yes,” she eventually snarled.
“Jarvis,” I said.
“Yeah, Sis?”
“Since you caused this,” I said and glared at him. “William Tell.”
He rolled his eyes and made a face. “How much have you had to drink?”
I looked down at my nearly full bottle of beer. “A thimbleful,” I assured him.
Jarvis kissed me quickly on the forehead. “Works for me. As long as it’s less than a keg, I’m game. I’ll grab Sir William,” he said then took off running.
“Who is Sir William?” Tanis whispered.
“You’ll see,” I said and waved him towards the beach.
Everyone followed, eager to watch the show. Even my parents and Tanis’ joined us to watch the challenge. Yahto and a few others set some empty beer bottles up on a makeshift stand halfway down the beach and cleared everyone from behind it.
“To answer your question,” I whispered, leaning into Tanis, “when I was eight or nine, Dad won a rifle in a poker game. It was broken and needed some tender loving care. Since I liked to take shit apart, even back then, Dad gave it to me. It only took me a week to fix it and get it in nearly new condition, so Dad and Uncle Joe taught me to shoot. From there it just kind of grew.”
“I do not understand,” he admitted. “You are going to shoot beer bottles as if this is old west?” he asked skeptically, yet it came out overly smug and conveyed that he was slightly disgusted at the thought.
“Something like that,” I said with a shrug.
Jarvis returned with Sir William slung over his shoulder and apple in hand. “What’d I miss?” he asked between bites.
“Nothing, she’s still lining up her shot,” I said and made a face.
From eighty yards away, five shots broke through three bottles.
“I’m impressed,” I called out. “By the looks of you, I wouldn’t have thought you could hit the broad side of a barn.”
Meadow flipped me off. “Beat that, bitch.”
“Oh, I plan on it and then some. And when I do, you will shut the hell up and take your flannel-wearing ass back to your singlewide and never step foot on our land again.” I smiled wide. “Wait here,” I whispered and winked at Tanis before taking Sir William from Jarvis.
“Don’t shoot me in the head,” Jarvis teased, kissing me on the forehead.
“I’ll try not to,” I assured him then headed in the opposite direction.
In passing, Jarvis took one of the lit tiki-torches that was lighting up the beach and strolled at a leisurely pace, taking large bites of the apple as he went. When we were three hundred yards apart, give or take, Jarvis put the apple core upright on the top of his head and waited with the torch in the sand next to him to give me a point of light to focus on.
“I told you to stay,” I told the darkness.
“That you did, however, I was curious,” Tanis said from the edge of the woods. “What are you two doing exactly?”
“You know William Tell?” I asked.
“Not personally, however I know of the story.”
Smart ass.
“Same premise,” I said. “Last year, Dad picked Sir William up for me at a police auction.” I slipped the M24 Sniper Rifle out of the cotton cover.
Tanis gasped.
“Don’t be such a chick. I love shooting,” I said and laid out the cotton cover so I didn’t ruin my dress before stretching out on the ground and took aim. “When I was younger, I won a lot of shooting competitions, then one day Dad said I had to stop. It pissed me off, but he’s my dad so it isn’t like I could argue with him. I could have made it to the Olympics eventually.” I sighed.
That would have been awesome. Oh well, too late now.
“Hold your breath,” I told him and took aim at the apple core sitting on the top of my brother’s head. One miscalculation and I’d kill him. I loved my family and the trust they had in me.
There wasn’t a breeze and I could see him clearly through the scope; he was rolling his eyes, silently telling me to hurry up—he’s an ass.
The loud crack from the gun was followed by the snapping of the apple core, and then by applause.
I sighed content. “That never gets old.”
I looked over at Tanis who was staring at me with wide eyes.
“What? Did I neglect to tell you that I have a lot of strange and manly hobbies?” I asked with a chuckle.
He swallowed loudly. “Something like that.”
“You should see my porn collection!” I teased, and he snorted before smirking.
Mom kissed me when we joined them back at the party. Jarvis threw the two pieces of apple core at me before he turned his attention on some broad in her early nineties that looks forty-five; I could have lived without seeing that.
“I win,” I said and smiled wide.
Meadow growled.
“Zip it!” I snapped at her. “I never said the goal was to hit as many as possible. It was all about distance, and your poor excuse for a rifle couldn’t handle the distance.”
“Bitch,” she growled.
“Yup, like you didn’t know,” I dryly agreed then headed back to the house with Tanis to put my rifle away. “Are you having fun?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I am neither enjoying meself nor not enjoying meself. I think I have seen more werewolves in the past hour than I have in me entire existence. Honestly, Duckie, I do not know how you do it.”
“Do what?” I asked, putting my gun away in the living room.
Tanis shrugged and turned his attention to the wall of family photos. “You had braces?” he asked, sounding slightly amused.
“Yeah, and glasses,” I admitted and blushed. “When I hit puberty I didn’t need the glasses any more, and the braces were to fix a slight overbite, nothing major. I think I wore them for less than a year. Why does that surprise you?”
“I do not know. It is hard to picture you as a child. You were a bonny bird, very innocent looking.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind and looked over his shoulder at the pictures.
“Who is that?” he asked as he took an old black and white picture off of the wall.
“Don’t!” I automatically yelled; that picture was to never be touched, per Mom and Dad.
Tanis, startled, accidentally dropped the picture and it hit the floor on its edge, breaking the frame. “My apologies,” he automatically said and picked up the picture. “I shall replace the frame.”
I groaned, taking the picture from him. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll glue it back together. It’s a unspoken rule to not ask about the picture or touch it. Whenever I asked about it, when I was younger, Dad always changed the subject so I stopped asking,” I explained as I tried to slide the glass back into the broken frame without slicing my fingers—that was all I didn’t need, another Georgia episode that evening. “I think she’s related to them but I’m not sure...what’s this?” I mumbled when the edge of a second picture slipped out from under the other.
Tanis took the picture from me and his eyes widened. “That’s me mum and dad,” he whispered.
“And those are mine,” I stated the obvious.
In the picture was six people: Mom, Dad, Sabirella, Toran, and two blondes. They were dressed in simple dinner dresses and suits from the early nineteen-fifties and stood together in front of a beautiful fountain.
“Where is that?” I asked, since it was obviously not local and Tanis might have known since he was cultured in the world.
“Rome,” he said, looking at the picture intently. “Trevi Fountain is one of the most famous fountains in the world. I shall take you to see it after graduation, if you would do me the honors.”
Typically, I would have been bouncing up and down at the invitation: to see Rome was on my list of places to visit. But his tone was completely absent of emotion so it sound more like an empty statement than an invitation.
“You don’t have to do that,” I mumbled.
Tanis looked over at me. “In June we will holiday in Rome and beyond, I promise. These people,” he said, looking back to the picture. “Do you know them?”
I shook my head. “All I know is they’re white.”
He snorted. “Yes, I suppose they are, cheeky bird. They are familiar to me yet I cannot place from where.”
The woman was beautiful—long white blonde hair, dark eyes, delicate sculpted features, curvy figure, full breasts, and overly full lips—and the man was handsome, I suppose—tall with broad shoulders, shoulder-length blond hair, light eyes, brilliant smile, and strong jaw—but I hadn’t seen them before. If I used Jarvis and Yahto’s way of thinking, they were familiar since all white people looked alike, but tribal-minded thinking aside, I hadn’t seen them before.
“Maybe in another life...or century,” I offered.
Tanis nodded. “Possibly,” he whispered. “Will you fetch me some tape?” he asked.
I cocked an eyebrow. “That better not be a subtle dog joke at my expense,” I warned.
“I would never do you the dishonor,” he assured me, so I went to get him some tape from the kitchen.
When I returned, the picture was back on the wall and looked in one piece, as if we never touched it.
“So you don’t need the tape,” I surmised and he smiled at me. “Were you trying to get me out of the room for some reason?” I asked, suspicious.
He gasped, feigning being insulted. “Duckie, do you honestly think so little of me that you would earnestly believe I would do something so juvenile and clandestine in order to what, hang up a picture?”
I cocked an eyebrow.
Tanis chuckled and wrapped his arms around me. “Have I told you how simply beautiful you look tonight?”
“In not so many words,” I mumbled, still suspicious.
“You are breathtakingly beautiful,” he purred, caressing one hand up the outside of my thigh, and under my dress, while the other rested on the small of my back. “More than one man, and a few woman even, have been rendered breathless by your beauty this evening. Never have I been more prideful than I have tonight, and that is simply because it is me arm you are on.”
What was there to say to that?
“Oh,” was all I managed to say, and he chuckled at my dumbfounded expression before snaking his hand around to my ass and squeezed.
“Simply delicious,” he moaned, pulling me tighter against him and the erection that was suddenly struggling to free itself from his jeans.
“You are being naughty, Mr. Ashton,” I informed him, trying to fight the urge to pull him upstairs to my room and continue what we started earlier that day.
“Uh huh,” he agreed and started working his lips down the length of my neck.
“Can I take a picture of us, or will you show up?” I asked, trying to distract him.
It worked.
Tanis leaned back and looked at me, giving me the look that silently conveyed I was going to get my ass spanked if I kept it up.
I grabbed the old Polaroid camera from the bookcase and positioned myself behind him so I could hold the camera out, and clicked a picture.
“So much nicer than digital, and less of a wait!” I beamed.
“I think that bloody thing is older than I am,” he complained when I clicked a second picture. “Are you done torturing me? I would immensely enjoy sharing one dance with you tonight, if you do not mind.”
“I don’t dance,” I said, waving the pictures to make the develop faster.
“It shall not be a problem,” he assured me and took the pictures. “Not bad for an old dude,” he teased; his Jarvis impression was appreciated. “I dare say, you look rather lovely as well, and slightly naughty.”
“Shut up,” I groaned and tried to take the pictures but he slipped them into his jacket pocket.
After a quick stop at the snack table, we followed the music to the dance floor.
“I feel like I’m in a goddamn ho down on Hee Haw,” d’Artagnan complained, stepping out of the shadows. “I didn’t know so much white trash could be found on the land of the red man.”
“I didn’t know such a giant tool could be so damn annoying,” I countered. “Shouldn’t you be babysitting your vegetable sister?”
“No,” he assured me. “Unlike my little brother, my siblings’ well-being is not my concern. Impressive shooting, I haven’t seen a woman shoot like that in nearly forty years.”
“Next time, you can hold the apple,” I informed him and smirked.
He nodded his appreciation of my subtle death threat.
“Go home,” Tanis growled.
“No, I’m having fun and something tells me that it’s going to get so much better.”
I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t have time to demand an explanation, because loud arguing came from the dance floor and it was drawing a crowd.
“Ooh, my spidey senses are tingling,” d’Artagnan purred, following us to the commotion.
Yahto and Chayton were standing on one side of the invisible line drawn between our tribe and a rival tribe from Southwestern Washington. Cain stood in the middle of her brothers; all three wore white tank tops and jeans. Thankfully they were clothed; they usually ran around naked at these parties. I wasn’t sure what they were arguing about, but I was pretty sure that the other three were drunk. Yahto doesn’t drink so he was trying to be the calm one out of the six, but he didn’t have the smarts to defuse the situation effectively.
“What happened?” Jarvis whispered in my ear.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Who are they?”
“The Spottedhorse boys. Their father is the alpha of their pack and refused to come because it was beneath him to celebrate for a white bitch like you,” he explained and Tanis hit him. “Dude, she’s heard it all before. There’s no reason to lie to her.”
Damn it.
There was one thing that would cause the consistently mellow Yahto to lose his temper, and that was insulting me.
“Are we going to rumble like in Westside story?” d’Artagnan asked before downing half of his beer. “Seriously, it wouldn’t be that hard to kill them. Their bodies burn rather easily and are soft and squishy!”
“What did you say, Parasite?” someone growled from behind him.
Lovely.
Another shoving match started, only that one was putting vampires against werewolves.
Tanis went to his brother’s aid, as did Romeo and Steffen, while Jarvis and I went to the six who were yelling at each other in the center of the dance floor.
“You are not welcome here,” Jarvis started.
“Go to hell. That bitch isn’t welcome anywhere!” one of them snarled.
Uh oh.
That was all it took.
Cain was suddenly on one of their backs, pulling his hair and scratching at his eyes.
Yahto had one on the ground and was punching him in the face repeatedly.
Jarvis and Chayton were arguing with the other.
Dad and Toran were in the back with Mom and Sabirella, trying to stop the yelling and shoving between the vampires and werewolves.
The pack elders were struggling to keep the peace between the younger wolves who were just waiting for a fight to break out.
And I stood there shaking because of it all.
“Happy birthday to me,” I mumbled.
From the corner of my eye, I caught strange movement, and the light reflected off of something metallic. The man looked like one of the other Spottedhorse boys, must have been the fourth, and he was going for my brother.
“Jarvis!” I yelled and everything went black before light again, and I was suddenly between them without even moving...to my knowledge.
Everyone stopped fighting and looked at us as silence seemingly washed over the crowded area. The man and I were eye to eye, our bodies pressed together, his lips pulled back into a snarl. There was something not right about him, a scent that polluted my senses and brought something primal to the forefront of my mind. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed that bastard to die at all costs, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand why. There was nothing about him that stood out to me other than his stench and a peculiar necklace around his neck, one that wasn’t tribal in the least but it was familiar to me.
“You shouldn’t have done that, you abomination of all that is holy,” he growled under his breath, pulling my complete attention.
“You’re probably right,” I agreed and stepped back. “You might want to run, because if they catch you, you won’t see it coming,” I warned and pulled the switchblade from my stomach before dropping it to the ground.